Stunning Losses by The San Jose Sharks and Golden State Warriors
I typical don't follow hockey very closely during the regular season, but I decided to watch a couple of Sharks home games on television in early November 2023. I was quite disappointed by what I witnessed. In the first game, they suffered a historic 10-1 defeat to the Vancouver Canucks. In the next game (two days later), they allowed ten goals again (this time to the Pittsburgh Penguins). In the last twenty months, there have been four instances where an NHL team has scored at least 10 goals and half of them came against the Sharks in San Jose in that ugly three-day span. In the last eleven years, there have been four instances where a team has allowed at least 10 goals at home. Half of them were against the Sharks in the losses to the Canucks and the Penguins.
Later that month, the Golden State Warriors started a string of two unforgettable losses in close proximity to each other. The Warriors had back-to-back road games (both in California) which they lost by just one point in each game (there was a home win sandwiched between those road losses). Somehow, the losses felt much worse than the Sharks' losses. In the first loss (November 28), the Warriors blew a 24-point lead against the Kings in Sacramento. The Warriors held the lead
for approximately 46 minutes and 3 seconds of the 48-minute game (48 minutes - 58 seconds (start of game) - 18 seconds (2nd Kings' lead) - 23 seconds (3rd Kings' lead) - 11 seconds (4th Kings' lead) - 7 seconds (5th and final Kings' lead)) and still lost the game.
In the second loss, the Warriors had a more (!!) painful defeat as they held the lead over 47 (!!) minutes and still lost: Draymond Green scored the first basket thirty-nine seconds into the game and the Warriors didn't relinquish the lead until Clippers
star Paul George hit a three-pointer with 8.9 seconds left for the game's final points. I wonder if the Warriors are the first team in NBA history to lose two games in less than a week in which they held the lead for at least 46 minutes of a 48-minute game. The
greatest NBA game where a team lost even after holding the lead for over 46 minutes and 45 seconds in a 48-minute game also involved a Northern Californian and a Southern Californian team: the Kings lost Game 4 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers despite holding the lead for 46 minutes and 53 seconds.